Rage is Not a Strategy

There is a short fable about two men walking in the jungle when they come face to face with a large tiger. One of the explorers quickly but quietly unlaces his boots and proceeds to put on a pair of running shoes.

“You can’t outrun that tiger,” the other one said.

“I don’t have to, I only need to outrun you.”

The Democrats still fail to understand the acceptance of Donald Trump. It was visible during the campaign, their futile recounts, their Hollywood videos begging voters first not to vote for Trump and then begging the electors to betray their commitment (causing Trump’s electoral margin to widen). And it is visible in yet another futile attempt to switch the Ga 6th district seat to Democrat neophyte Jon Ossoff with tons of money and support from out of state. Trump’s victory was a populist rejection of the very elites trying to switch this seat. They will likely fail again. Ossoff did better than expected (perhaps not so surprising given the money and attention poured into his campaign), but still not enough to eliminate a runoff and an eventual loss.

The Republicans failed to reform health care, and tax cuts are becoming more distant. Intellectual conservatives are still hostile and economics bloggers reject his concept of economic nationalism. But as much as that nonpartisan or weakly partisan middle group that decides elections may reject part of Trump’s agenda, the Democrats provide an even poorer alternative.

They certainly are no better on the economic issues that are proving futile to the Republicans, and they remain worse on other issues. The Democrats were rejected on cultural issues as much if not more than economic issues; specifically, identity politics and political correctness.

The violence and illiberal attitude on campuses is repulsive to the decisive middle, and costs the Democrats severely. The idea that we are Americans second, and black, female or gay first is also rejected.

Our success in Civil Rights is a headwind to modern progressivism. As much as BLM may reignite racial tensions, most voters do not equate it with the Civil Rights movement and do not equate Michael Brown with Martin Luther King. The use of the race card to shut down debate is frustrated by the ultimate safe space, the voting booth.

Rage clouds judgment; it is not a strategy. The #resistance is a losing battle; if 40% of the voters are Democrat and if 60% of the Democrats are #resistance supporters, that is only 24% of the voters and their rage and contempt only drives more supporters into the Trump camp. The contempt displayed in the one word, ‘deplorable’, cost Hillary far more votes than Comey or the Russians.

If the Democrats refuse to accept their loss in ideological terms they are unlikely to change. Even in the face of Republican failures and concerns with Trump, The Democrats fail to provide a better alternative, and are just watching while the Republicans lace up their running shoes.